Honestly, if you saw me in May 2019 and told me that I’d be watching ANYTHING related to Game of Thrones (GOT) three years following the disastrous and disappointing season eight finale, I would have laughed you to scorn right in your face. 

But alas, after promising myself that I deserve better, HBO returned yesterday (August 21) with the first episode of the GOT prequel series, House of the Dragon, and reeled me back into their franchise. 

In true GOT fashion, House of the Dragon did not pull any punches, delivering the same high-quality, dracarys pumping, intricately paced, gore-filled hodgepodge that fans have come to love (and hate), which sets the stage for an epic rollercoaster ride for the remaining nine episodes.

The new series opens 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen and follows the Targaryen family at a time when the noble house was at the peak of political power but gripped by an unfolding ‘lineage crisis’.

Spoiler warning! Please do not proceed if you are yet to see Episode 1: ‘The Heirs of the Dragon’:

You see, head honcho and Prince of Dragonstone, King Viserys I Targaryen, struggles to find himself a male heir to inherit the Iron Throne, as five previous attempts by wife, Aemma Arryn, all failed after she birthed their first child, Rhaenyra Targaryen.

King Viserys, now reigning for his ninth year, has a younger brother, Daemon, gunning for the throne, but repeatedly kept him at bay by appointments outside the small council. 

Daemon, elevated to Commander of the City Watch, which polices King’s Landing, has since returned to seek favour from his elder brother and to perhaps be named his successor as Prince of Dragonstone. 

There are two major cogs in the younger Targaryen’s plans though: Ser Otto Hightower, who is wary of his overly violent tendencies, and, the fact that though Viserys I loves him very much, he has no intention of ever tapping Daemon to inherit the Iron Throne.

So desperate is Hightower to ensure Daemon never places even a single hair follicle in the highest seat of the seven kingdoms, that he suggests King Viserys I do what was previously considered the ‘unthinkable’—appoint Princess Rhaenyra, a girl, as the rightful heir, thereby keeping the Targaryen bloodline firmly intact under ‘The Young King’.

Duty over self weighs on the mind of young Princess Rhaenyra, however, who would much rather spend her days in the skies, soaring on the back of her personal dragon Syrax.

King Viserys I cautiously muses this proposition but is adamant that his queen will bear a son and remove the need altogether. 

The fateful day when Queen Aemma goes into labour finally comes, albeit with complications and a dire decision, which Viserys makes against the will of his wife, opting to ensure his son’s safe delivery over her survival. 

The babe, named Baelon (after Viserys’ late father), lives for all but a day after his birth, eliciting what is viewed as a drunken mockery by Daemon, who himself triggers his brother’s wrath when word of his rant reaches back to the king’s ear. 

The episode ends with Viserys accepting a new direction for House Targaryen by hosting a grand coronation for Princess Rhaenyra to become the seven kingdom’s first-ever queen, and Daemon storming out of King’s Landing enraged. 

He may not know it yet, but the seeds of civil war have already been sown.

WATCH trailer: